May 9th has been a pretty good day for Bruce Springsteen.
On that day in 1974, …

On that day in 1974, he gave one of the most important performances of his career. He was opening for Bonnie Raitt at her Harvard Square Theatre show and at Bonnie’s request, he played his full two-hour set. In the audience that night a writer for Rolling Stone by the name of Jon Landau. Bruce delivers a show so impressive Landau later wrote in Boston’s The Real Paper, “I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time.” Landau would later become Springsteen’s manager and producer.

The 18 years later, on May 9, 1992, Springsteen made his first live appearance on US television, performing “Lucky Town” on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Bruce had had a standing offer for 17 years to do SNL, and he finally took them up on it.